I use a plain text editor. If you're going to be doing any sort of even
half-serious web design, I highly recommend several methods of learning
HTML:

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Read the standard available at:
www.w3.org

It is not a good idea to just jump in and start reading standards and
specifications. I suggest reading a good book about basic modern web
design instead.

I disagree. After teaching myself the basics (by copying work others had
done), reading the standards and specifications jumped my knowledge more
then any book ever did. The only design book I have is for CSS 2.1

I'm also self-taught, and I learned much of what I know by having downloaded
a really comprehensive reference that is written in German (unfortunately

it's not available in English). Right now I'm at the point where I only
use the W3C

specs I have downloaded as a reference. Essentially, I think, web design is
not that difficult. Understanding the CSS box formatting model is imho very

important, and when looking for the answer to any specific problem, I
use Google.